Home Office

Passports: Biometrics

lord campbell-savours: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have considered the collection of additional biometric data for inclusion in the provision of passports.

baroness williams of trafford: The British passport is fully compliant with international standards and guidelines as set out by the International Civil Aviation Organization. There are currently no plans to include additional biometric data in passports.

Unexplained Wealth Orders

lord rooker: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers byBaroness Williams of Trafford on 2 August (HL8713, HL9714, HL9715, and HL9716), what are the nationalities of those who have been subjectto Unexplained Wealth Orders (UWOs) since January; whether any further UWOs have been granted since 2 August; and if so, what are the nationalities of those who have been subject to such Orders.

baroness williams of trafford: The release of information, such as the nationality of a respondent who is the subject of a UWO, is a matter for the High Court. With regard to the current UWOs, the Court ruled that the applications for the UWOs should be held in private.The Court subsequently ruled that the challenge to one of the UWOs should be held in public but with the reporting restriction that the respondent should not be identified. No further UWOs have been granted at this stage. The Home Office continues to work with law enforcement agencies to encourage their use.

Department for Education

Schools

baroness coussins: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many schools are part of (1) maths hubs, (2) careers hubs, and (3) modern foreign languages hubs.

baroness coussins: To ask Her Majesty's Government what are the annual budgets for (1) maths hubs, (2) careers hubs, and (3) modern foreign languages hubs; and for how many years each type of hub will be funded.

lord agnew of oulton: The following table provides the budget for 35 maths hubs across England between 2016-17 and 2021-22.  2016-172017-182018-192019-202020-212021-22Maths hubs£14 million£19 million£23 million£30 million£6 million£9 million  Since the start of the Teaching for Mastery programme in 2016 approximately 2,900 schools have taken part in the programme with a further 2,700 starting in the 2018/19 academic year. The department announced on 3 August that there will be £4.8 million funding for the modern foreign languages (MFL) hubs programme, over the next four years. We expect that this will be broken down as follows:  2018-192019-202020-212021-222022-23MFL hubs£700,000£1.2 million£1.2 million£1.2 million£500,000  The MFL hubs programme will pilot an approach to raising the standard of teaching in modern foreign languages by taking forward the recommendations made in the Teaching Schools Council Modern Foreign Languages Pedagogy Review[1], which was led by head teacher and linguist Ian Bauckham. By the end of the pilot, in 2023, at least 400 schools will have received direct support from the MFL hubs. The government’s careers strategy committed £5 million of funding for The Careers & Enterprise Company to set up 20 new careers hubs across the country to test the model piloted in the North East to improve progress against the Gatsby Benchmarks, in addition to continuing to support the work of the original pilot hub in the North East. This will be broken down as follows:  2018-192019-20Careers hubs£2.6 million£2.4 million  In addition, 10 of the new careers hubs will also receive a share of £1.25 million to spend on careers activities spread across both years. The hubs will start their work from September 2018 and are funded to run for two academic years until July 2020. The 20 new hubs and the expanded North East Hub will cover 700 schools and colleges in total. [1] For further information regarding the work of this review please see the following webpage: https://www.tscouncil.org.uk/modern-foreign-languages-report/.

Managers: Apprentices

lord lucas: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the final funding band review for the Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship standard of 15 August, what calculations or data were used to reach the conclusion that any new standard for a Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship would be allocated to an initial band of £8,000.

lord agnew of oulton: This is a matter for the Institute for Apprenticeships. I have asked its Chief Executive, Sir Gerry Berragan, to write to my noble Friend and a copy of his reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

Special Educational Needs: Inspections

lord shinkwin: To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with Ofsted and the Care Quality Commissionabout ensuring that local area SEND inspections evaluate how effectively local areas use the data collected at age two (Ages and Stages Questionnaire), age four (baseline assessment), and age five (early years foundation stage profile) to monitor children identified as in need of support.

lord agnew of oulton: The effectiveness of the use of data by local areas to monitor children identified as in need of support is a key element of the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) inspection framework.In preparation for the inspection, inspectors will consider all available evidence to develop a picture of the local area’s performance in fulfilling its responsibilities. This includes, but is not restricted to, data relating to the identification of SEND. This includes health review assessments and commissioning and delivery, including the healthy child programme and school nursing service. During the inspection, inspectors will draw on a range of information and data to support making their judgements. Inspectors will also test the local area’s self-evaluation of its effectiveness in identifying and meeting the needs of children and young people with SEND. All inspection reports include findings on the effectiveness of the local area’s use of evaluation. In West Berkshire, for example, leaders across health, education and care services regularly meet to consider the support for pupils with the highest level of need. This close collaboration not only ensures that current support is working well but also that services change and evolve to meet the needs of these pupils as they grow.

Children: Speech and Language Disorders

lord shinkwin: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to provide commissioners of services for children and young people with speech, language and communication needs with guidance on seeking the views of service users and their families and the co-production of service design.

lord agnew of oulton: We recognise the importance of ensuring that children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and their parents are engaged in developing SEND policy and processes, including commissioning arrangements, in local areas. As part of a £3.8 million contract with the Council for Disabled Children and KIDS that will be delivered between 2018 and 2020, we invested £1.15 million between April 2016 and March 2018 to support young people with SEND to contribute to the ongoing development of SEND policy and implementation. We are also providing £4.6 million to Parent Carer Forums between 2018 and 2020. This will bring parents together with local decision makers and help provide them with a voice in the system. The views of service users and the effectiveness of co-production are key elements of the Ofsted and Care Quality Commission inspections of SEND services. These inspections, which began in 2016, will take place in all local authority areas in England over a period of five years. The inspections identify strengths and areas for development and support commissioners to work with partners, including families, to further improve services. We have worked with partners, including NHS England, to establish a national network for Designated Medical Officers and Designated Clinical Officers. We have also funded a local authority-led regional network and developed resources to support joint self-assessment and peer review. Improving local SEND commissioning arrangements has been identified as a key area in recent reviews. In particular, this was identified in the ‘Good intentions, good enough?’ report by Christine Lenehan, published in November 2017, and the ‘Bercow: 10 Years On’ report, published by I CAN and the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists in March this year. Both reports are attached. We are establishing a leadership board of key stakeholders, and a key focus for this board will be to work with local authorities and NHS clinical commissioning groups to support them to improve local planning and commissioning.



HL10322_Good_intentions_good_enough_report
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HL10322_Bercow_Ten_Years_On_Report
(PDF Document, 2.56 MB)

Academies: Accountancy

lord storey: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the financial returns from multi-academy trusts to the Education and Skills Funding Agency are available for scrutiny.

lord agnew of oulton: Multi-academy trusts are regulated by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) and must sign funding agreements, adhering to clear rules about oversight and compliance. They must also have their annual accounts externally audited and must publish these at Companies House. Given that academy trusts must prepare annual accounts, this provides considerably more information than other schools. The most recently published financial audit identified that more than 95% of trusts had no issues. These accounts provide a far higher level of public scrutiny than is required of local authority (LA) schools. This is because LA schools are not required to prepare individual statutory accounts and instead, their financial performance is summarised within LAs’ accounts. In addition, academy trusts are audited externally to international auditing standards. This is not required of LA schools. The department also publishes the ‘Consolidated Annual Report and Accounts’, based on returns from all academies in England. The reports are available for public scrutiny, where the most recent attached report can be found at:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/academies-consolidated-annual-report-and-accounts-2015-to-2016. We are aiming to publish the report for 2016/17 in October.



HL10328_Academy_Schools_Reports_And_Accounts
(PDF Document, 5.38 MB)

Academies: Inspections

lord storey: To ask Her Majesty's Government how often independent inspections of multi-academy trusts are carried out; and how many financial inspections of multi-academy trusts were carried out in (1) 2014–15, and (2) 2016–17.

lord agnew of oulton: Ofsted inspect schools, including schools in multi-academy trusts (MATs), against the Common Inspection Framework. Inspection reports are published by Ofsted[1]. Where schools are in a MAT, Ofsted can batch school inspections together and publish their findings, in relation to the whole MAT. In addition, the department also publishes performance measures for MATs bringing together their school-level performance data[2]. The finances of all trusts are independently audited every year and published on trusts’ websites and are also available on Companies House[3]. Additionally, in cases where financial wrongdoing is suspected, the Education & Skills Funding Agency may conduct targeted investigations. The reports from these investigations are published on GOV.UK[4]. [1] https://reports.beta.ofsted.gov.uk/.[2] https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/.[3] https://www.gov.uk/get-information-about-a-company.[4] https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/academies-investigation-reports.

Academies: Contracts

lord storey: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether financial regulations may be breached when contractors sub-contract work at a multi-academy trust to the sponsor of that trust.

lord agnew of oulton: The financial regulations for all academy trusts are set out in the Academies Financial Handbook (AFH), which is a publicly available document updated annually on GOV.UK. The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) conducts a risk-based programme of work each year to obtain assurance in respect of the financial transactions of academy trusts, including compliance with the requirements of the AFH. If there are any instances where financial wrongdoing is suspected, the ESFA may conduct investigations and will publish the findings. The AFH is reviewed annually and was considerably revised for the academic year commencing 1 September 2018. Academy trusts are subject to annual audit, where the auditor will report any transactions they identify which have breached our requirements.

Pupils: Sanitary Protection

lord storey: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to provide sanitary products to young women who miss school because of the cost of those products.

lord agnew of oulton: Schools have discretion over how they use their funding and they can make sanitary products available if they identify this as a barrier to pupils’ attendance. We support schools in addressing the needs of disadvantaged pupils through the pupil premium which, in this year alone, has been equivalent to more than £2.4 billion of additional funding. The department published statistics in March 2018 which show that, whilst school absence rates related to illness are slightly higher for girls than for boys, the gap in absence rates between boys and girls is very similar regardless of disadvantage. This suggests that period poverty does not have a significant, nation-wide impact on pupils’ school attendance. The department has made it a priority to reduce overall pupil absence as it is clear that every extra day of school missed by a pupil can affect their chances of achieving good GCSE results. Overall, yearly absence rates have decreased from 6.5% of possible sessions missed in the period 2006 to 2007 to 4.7% in the period 2016 to 2017.

Schools: Vocational Education

lord watson of invergowrie: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of the "Baker Clause" in the Technical and Further Education Act 2017.

lord agnew of oulton: The Baker Clause requires secondary schools to allow providers of technical education and apprenticeships into school to talk to pupils. In the early months since the duty was introduced in January 2018, we focused on raising awareness in all schools and making it clear what they must do to comply.A review by officials during the summer term of how schools were implementing the new duty showed a mixed picture. Some providers reported improved relationships with schools but others experienced difficulties accessing pupils.Since September, we are taking stronger actions. We are working directly with providers and schools to strengthen relationships and address barriers to compliance. We will intervene directly with schools in any serious cases of non-compliance.

T-levels

lord watson of invergowrie: To ask Her Majesty's Government when they expect to announce further details of the transition year for T-levels; and whether traineeships will be considered as an option.

lord agnew of oulton: The government has committed to developing an effective transition offer to make sure that as many students as possible can complete T levels. We will take a phased implementation approach once the first T levels are introduced in 2020 and are working with the Institute for Apprenticeships, providers and sector bodies to consider how best to target this offer and will set out further information in due course.We have allocated nearly £60 million to colleges and schools to help them build their capacity to deliver the improved industry placements required as part of T levels.Alongside the development of the transition offer, we will continue to fund traineeships for students who need extra support to be ready for an apprenticeship or employment. We are considering the transition offer’s relationship to other study programmes, including traineeships.

Pupil Exclusions

lord watson of invergowrie: To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they intend to take following the recent Ofsted survey which showed that one-fifth of teachers have witnessed off-rolling in their schools where pupils are informally excluded.

lord agnew of oulton: A pupil can only be deleted lawfully from the admission register of a school on the grounds prescribed in regulation 8 of the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006, as amended. The department has recently written to all secondary schools, reminding them of the rules surrounding exclusion.Schools can exclude pupils, either permanently or for a fixed period, for disciplinary reasons. The department supports schools in using exclusion where this is warranted. Permanent exclusion should be used only as a last resort, in response to a serious breach or persistent breaches of the school's behaviour policy and where allowing the pupil to remain in school would seriously harm the education or welfare of the pupil or others in the school.The attached statutory guidance on exclusions is clear that ‘informal’ or ‘unofficial’ exclusions, such as sending a pupil home ‘to cool off’, are unlawful, regardless of whether they occur with the agreement of parents or carers. Any exclusion of a pupil, even for short periods of time, must be formally recorded.In March, the government launched an externally led review of exclusions practice, led by Edward Timpson CBE. The review will explore how head teachers use exclusion, and why pupils with particular characteristics are more likely to be excluded from school. It will also consider the practice in schools in relation to directing pupils to alternative provision without excluding. The review aims to report by the end of the year. The full terms of reference document is attached. 



1_HL10338_Statutory_Guidance_Exclusions
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2_HL10338_Review_of_School_Exclusion_ToR
(PDF Document, 107.44 KB)

Children in Care: Safety

lord watson of invergowrie: To ask Her Majesty's Government what risk assessments regarding the safety of looked-after children are carried out by the Education and Skills Funding Agency prior to such children being sent to distant local authority areas; and whether such assessments are available for public scrutiny.

lord watson of invergowrie: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether, when a minister personally directs a school to accept a looked-after child from outsideits area, the minister accepts liability for that child's safety and welfare should they be placed in danger.

lord agnew of oulton: The Education and Skills Funding Agency does not have a role in care planning for looked-after children. Care planning, including any decision to place a child in a distant placement, is the responsibility of the local authority, who have a statutory duty to ensure that the placement is the most appropriate way to safeguard and promote the child’s welfare. We have made it a requirement for Directors of Children’s Services to approve all placements outside of the local authority boundary.Guidance on the use of direction in relation to looked-after children is set out in paragraphs 3.19 and 3.20 of the School Admissions Code, attached. When placing looked-after children, we would expect, in most cases, for local authorities and academies to reach an agreement between themselves. A request for my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State, to direct an academy to admit a child should be a last resort.As the corporate parent, the local authority remains responsible for ensuring that the child’s safety and welfare are safeguarded. Children should never be placed in a situation that compromises their safety. Schools have a responsibility to promote and safeguard the welfare of all children in their care, regardless of whether or not they are looked-after.



School_Admissions_Code_December_2014
(PDF Document, 681.56 KB)

Teachers: Pay

lord wigley: To ask Her Majesty's Government what consultations they have held with teaching unions in Wales on the issue of teachers' pay.

lord agnew of oulton: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State issued a written ministerial statement and published the ‘School Teachers’ Review Body’ report on 24 July 2018. Department officials wrote to all statutory consultees, including the teaching unions in Wales, to invite them to comment on the report, the government’s response to it, the revised ‘School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions’ document and accompanying pay order. The consultation lasted for six weeks, ending on 3 September 2018. Undeb Cenedlaethol Athrawon Cymru (UCAC) provided a response and evidence to the consultation on 3 September 2018. The department also invited all statutory consultees to meet Department for Education officials to discuss the report. UCAC did not take up that offer.

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Furniture: Fire Resistant Materials

the countess of mar: To ask Her Majesty's Government what information has been made available to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, the Dame Judith Hackett Review, and the Independent Experts Advisory Panel with regard to the findings set out in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills consultation papers on the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations, published in 2015, that the Regulations are ineffective and that furniture and furnishings treated with flame retardant chemicals can cause toxic smoke in dwelling fires.

lord bourne of aberystwyth: The Department is providing the Grenfell Tower Inquiry with the documents that it holds in accordance with its Terms of Reference and List of Issues. It will then be for the Inquiry to determine which of these documents are relevant.The Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety was commissioned to consider the effectiveness of the current system of building regulation and fire safety, with a particular focus on multi-occupancy, high-rise residential buildings. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills’ consultation papers on the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations did not fall within the remit of the Review.

Housing: Immigrants

lord browne of belmont: To ask Her Majesty's Government what research, if any, they have commissioned into the effect of immigration on housing demand.

lord bourne of aberystwyth: The Department has not directly commissioned research into the effect of immigration on housing demand. However, on 2 July 2018, the Secretary of State wrote to Professor Alan Manning, the Chair of the Migration Advisory Committee, encouraging the Committee to take account of the effects of immigration on the housing market in their analysis.

Department for Work and Pensions

Personal Independence Payment

lord clark of windermere: To ask Her Majesty's Government, following their decision to review 1.6 million Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claims as a result of the court ruling in JanuaryCP v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (PIP): [2018] UKUT 5 (AAC),how many of those in receipt ofPIP who have been further re-assessed since February have been informed of the outcome.

lord clark of windermere: To ask Her Majesty's Government, following their decision to review 1.6 million Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claims as a result of the court ruling in JanuaryCP v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (PIP): [2018] UKUT 5 (AAC), how many individuals in receipt of PIP who had been re-assessed for continued eligibility have been further re-assessed; how many remain to be further re-assessed; and when the process will be completed.

lord clark of windermere: To ask Her Majesty's Government, following their decision to review 1.6 million Personal Independence Payments (PIP) claims as a result of the court ruling in JanuaryCP v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (PIP): [2018] UKUT 5 (AAC), whether all those who had been reviewed for continued eligibility ofPIP in 2016 and 2017 will be informed if they will be further re-assessed.

baroness buscombe: As outlined in the Written Statement of 25 June 2018 (HLWS767) my Department is carrying out an administrative exercise to identify anyone who may be entitled to more support under Personal Independence Payment (PIP) as a result of the MH and RJ judgments.The Upper Tribunal judgment of CP v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (PIP): [2018] UKUT 5 (AAC) was heard after RJ and the Tribunal therefore considered RJ when it made its decision. All claimants will be notified if we have reviewed their case. Claimants whose PIP award increases will receive backdated payments. This will either be from the date of the judgement(s) or the start of their PIP award, if this was after the judgment. Decision makers will consider the MH judgment for all PIP decisions made since 28th November 2016. They will also consider the RJ judgment for all PIP decisions made since 9th March 2017. This will include claims which have been disallowed after the date of the judgment(s). As additionally outlined in the Written Statement of 25 June 2018, I am committed to updating the House regularly and a statement on progress of this exercise will be tabled in the autumn. In regard to timing this is a very complex exercise and of substantial scale. We absolutely understand the urgency of this work, but we are also committed to carrying it out safely and correctly to ensure claimants receive the payments they are entitled to.